The present invention relates in general to maintenance and repair of equipment and, more particularly, to systems for providing information for maintenance and repair of equipment. Specifically, one embodiment of the invention provides a computer based apparatus and method which provide access to complex technical information employed to maintain and repair complicated equipment, such as aircraft, to enable compliance with regulatory requirements.
Historically, various publishers, including manufacturers and governmental agencies, have provided printed information regarding maintenance and repair of equipment, such as aircraft, subject to regulatory requirements. As a service to aircraft maintenance and repair personnel, Aircraft Technical Publishers, located in Brisbane, Calif., for example, consolidates and serves as a central source of aircraft technical information for the aircraft industry. This company collects, catalogs, and synopsizes maintenance and repair information and provides a library of this information to subscribers. As a library service provider, this company interacts with aircraft manufacturers and maintenance and repair operations world-wide to support subscriber inquiry and develop products tailored to the needs of the subscribers.
More particularly, Aircraft Technical Publishers integrates the general maintenance and repair publications of the aviation fleet into a unified library service. This library service includes periodic updates of the library. See "Product Catalog," Aircraft Technical Publishers, Spring, 1992.
Presently, the library resides on microfiche which is periodically updated. Although microfiche reduces storage requirements, microfiche can be misfiled, and microfiche readers are cumbersome to use.
It is therefore desirable to provide a system to facilitate access to, and update of, maintenance and repair information by the aviation industry. Furthermore, it would be desirable to provide an approach that would enable subscribers to interact with a single interface to all the publications required for maintaining and repairing a specific aircraft. It is also desirable to provide an industry-appropriate solution which accommodates support of the maintenance and repair operations of subscribers by an independent source database publisher to reduce the large investment required for any particular organization, such as a manufacturer, independent maintenance and repair operation, or governmental agency, that wishes to publish libraries. Potentially, this single source approach would facilitate industry usage through adoption of common standards and conventions.